Filling out? and Weight.

I've been skinny all my life, in fact I'm considered underweight. I am around 5' 8'' and around 120 pounds. I can see my ribs and the thought of losing weight scares me. Will I sort of even out and gain weight on paleo?

That kind of leads to my second question; being really skinny without much muscle, what does it take to fill out? I've been to weight lifting forums where they follow very specific diets and do special programs with barbells, but joining a gym is way out of my budget right now, the diet part is already taken care of or I wouldn't be here. I know I won't get ripped from bodyweight exercises, but if I did them on a consistent basis ( pushups, planks, etc... ) would I see a difference at all? Or does it take a dedicated strength program?

Welcome, Mageta. Primal eating is great for meeting our body's nutritional needs. Along with a little exercise I'm sure you will be able to use it to help meet your goal of filling out some. You will almost certainly need to eat more, and it should be excellent quality nutritionally and calorie dense food. What does your current food intake/exercise schedule look like?

From what I can gather, bodyweight training can be effective for building some solid muscle, especially if you are untrained to start with. The PBF book is pretty good. I have also heard good things about Convict Conditioning and You Are Your Own Gym. Also, Al Kavadlo has some good stuff on his website.

My personal experience: I've definitely filled out since I started eating Primal (went from ~150 -> 175 @ 5'11"). But I can't give the diet alone credit. I have been training consistently with barbells for the past few years as well and at times have eaten way more than I needed to satisfy my appetite just so I could build some muscle.

You can get very strong doing bodyweight exercises. If you want to gain weight you will have to eat more. If you are male, it may be that you need to eat a LOT more, like to the point you can't stand it.

I gained about 15 pounds of muscle doing Convict Conditioning and eating primally. I went from 146 to about 160, as a 5'10" male.

Eat clean primal foods and start moving your body around. Download the PBF ebook and read it. Ask questions. With bodyweight exercise, don't get trapped into trying to do more all the time. Once you reach a certain level, go to the next harder exercise. Log your efforts, so you can see progress over time.

That's what intimidates me the most, just getting that amount of protein and the sheer volume of food I need to consume to make gains. Today I had...

Egss for breafast
Salmon croquet's for lunch with steamed broccoli
Leafy salad with balsamic vinegar, around two and a half thin pork chops, an avocado, trail mix ( pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds and pineapple bits ) and two sticks of celery with peanut butter for dinner.

It's hard to estimate some of those like the salmon croquet's also have egg in them, and I'm not eating exact serving sizes as stated on the can of salmon so I can only make a guess. I estimate around 80-100 grams today maybe. Also the peanut butter isn't considered primal, I don't know if it matters that I eat it, but it's a great source of protein. Cost is a huge issue for me, I need to stay at 50 bucks a week or under for groceries so I have to be careful, especially with meat.

That's what intimidates me the most, just getting that amount of protein and the sheer volume of food I need to consume to make gains. Today I had...

Egss for breafast
Salmon croquet's for lunch with steamed broccoli
Leafy salad with balsamic vinegar, around two and a half thin pork chops, an avocado, trail mix ( pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds and pineapple bits ) and two sticks of celery with peanut butter for dinner.

It's hard to estimate some of those like the salmon croquet's also have egg in them, and I'm not eating exact serving sizes as stated on the can of salmon so I can only make a guess. I estimate around 80-100 grams today maybe. Also the peanut butter isn't considered primal, I don't know if it matters that I eat it, but it's a great source of protein. Cost is a huge issue for me, I need to stay at 50 bucks a week or under for groceries so I have to be careful, especially with meat.

You need to make every bite count.

Eggs for breakfast is a good start. Scramble them in butter with some whole milk and add some grated cheese.

Salmon croquets?? Load them with wholesome primal ingredients - egg, colourful veges, maybe some coconut cream and bacon.
Your steamed broccoli should be tossed in butter and pepper or drizzled with olive oil and some tasty seeds.

Pork and avocado sound good but leafy salads take a bit of effort to chow down, you might be better off with cooked veges, either stirfried or steamed and mashed with butter. Celery is also hard work, why not turn your peanut butter into a satay sauce and drown your chop with it. Make sure you cook it slow so it is tender, and leave the fat on.

You definitely need to eat more, you could easily add a banana and whole milk smoothie in the afternoon, berries and cream for dessert and a hot chocolate drink in the evening to get your calories up.

I've been skinny all my life, in fact I'm considered underweight. I am around 5' 8'' and around 120 pounds. I can see my ribs and the thought of losing weight scares me. Will I sort of even out and gain weight on paleo?

That kind of leads to my second question; being really skinny without much muscle, what does it take to fill out?

You need to gain like 50 pounds...seriously. Start eating anything remotely primal until you can't walk. Weight lifting would be ideal, but body weight stuff is good too.

I'm eating kind of "utilitarian" in order to build muscle. Forget foo-foo stuff like croquets or omelets. I just bake a bunch of giant boneless skinless chicken breasts. I will eat one or half for breakfast, one or half for lunch. I'll eat it with either a potato or some mixed vegetables. Sometimes I will eat a 7.5oz can of salmon instead of the chicken. Then I will eat another large serving of some kind of meat for dinner, with potato and vegetables usually. Very utilitarian but it is getting the job done and for this old lady, getting it done with no fat gain. If I was a guy, I'd double the quantity of this utilitarian diet. If I was a skinny guy who really wanted to gain, I'd probably try that GOMAD thing (or maybe GOYAD - Y = yogurt). But for me? No.